Yellowjackets create quite a buzz

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, June 19, 2003

Yellowjackets opened their six-day stand at Jazz Alley Tuesday night with a light and swinging romp through some experimental grooves.

Drummer Marcus Baylor provided most of the interest, with a fresh approach that incorporated a hip-hop sensibility into jazz drumming. Baylor played his set with the style of a DJ mixing beats, integrating his cymbals into the snare patterns rather than using them for flour- ishes. [Note: Baylor's last name was misspelled in the original version of this review.]

With the exception of his occasional lead solos, which were very much in the style of Jaco Pastorious, electric bassist Jimmy Haslip found new patterns to fit with Baylor's unique accents. On "New Jake," from last year's live album, Haslip emphasized Baylor's kick drum on the three and four with a simple punch that kept the first half of each measure in suspension.

At a recent educational performance, a youngster called out to the band, "Play a go-go beat." They complied with a jam that evolved into the tune "Go Go," one of four compositions played from "Time Squared," their first studio album in five years. The unique thing about this tune was how the rhythm never resolved, but kept up a perpetual groove while Bob Mintzer's saxophone and Russell Ferrante's piano maintained a lively jump.

Most of the new music was focused on unconventional time signatures, from "v," which imagined how John Coltrane might have dealt with the 5/4 signature, to the double waltz time of "Sea Folk" that kept dropping a beat. The rhythmic dialogue between the piano and bass was captivating.

"Monk's Habit" opened with a saxophone intro that suggested Charlie Parker's rhythm but without all the notes. Ferrante's playing, while initially more fluid than Monk's, eventually addressed the struggle central to Monk's music. Midway through the tune, Mintzer broke out with a colossal Sonny Rollins blast, with Mintzer comping behind him. This tribute captured Monk's sense of time more than his style as a pianist.

Yellowjackets closed their 90-minute set with "The Evening News," which served as a showboat for the individual band members. Until then, the musicians had kept themselves somewhat restrained, working on getting the compositions across rather than demonstrating their own virtuosity.

The crowd was duly impressed, the persistence of their applause bringing the band back for an encore.